AUSTRALIA
Cocaine haul seized
A massive haul of cocaine bound for Australia in the hull of a yacht has been intercepted by the French Navy in the Pacific Ocean, officials said yesterday. The 1.46 tonnes of the drug with an estimated street value of A$322 million (US$256 million) was seized in the South Pacific and four crewmembers, believed to be Lithuanian and Latvian nationals, were arrested, officials said. The vessel Afalina, which set sail from South America, was towed to Noumea in New Caledonia, a French territory. The Criminal Intelligence Commission said it was working with its international partners to probe “the Lithuanian syndicate” and pinpoint exactly where the drugs came from after the seizure last week. “We are thankful for the actions taken by French authorities, which has stopped a significant amount of drugs reaching the streets of Australia,” commission executive director of intelligence Col Blanch said.
JAPAN
Tortoise escapes again
The escapee is female, weighs 55kg and has a “gentle” disposition, but a history of running away. A zoo on Thursday said it was searching for its giant tortoise, which has escaped for the second time in less than two weeks. The reptile, measuring about 1m in length, was captured on security cameras as she wandered out of the main entrance of Shibukawa Animal Park in Okayama Prefecture on Tuesday morning, zoo staffer Yoshimi Yamane said. The tortoise “won’t immediately die, because it will eat grass available around the zoo, but we’re all very worried,” Yamane told reporters. “She’s quiet and gentle,” Yamane said, adding that the zoo has received no reports of sightings of the approximately 35-year-old tortoise. Tuesday’s escape was the second time in less than a fortnight that the fleet-footed reptile, which is allowed to walk freely inside the park during opening hours, fled the zoo. Yamane said it was found walking down the road 150m away from the zoo on July 21. “I spotted her on the way to the zoo. I stopped my car and asked my colleagues to help,” she said. “She can walk faster than we can ever imagine.”
AFGHANISTAN
Bomber reported in burqa
An official said that a suicide bomber who hit a NATO patrol, killing one service member and two Afghan civilians, had hid behind the all-enveloping women’s garment known as a burqa. Qarabagh District Governor Abdul Sami Sharifi yesterday said that the attacker was riding a motorcycle. The bomber rammed his motorcycle into a NATO patrol late the previous night, Sharifi said. The US military in Afghanistan reported the death of the coalition member, but not identify the soldier’s nationality.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese